Q: You recently launched the climate project Not Too Late together. Can you give us some insight into what the goal of this project is and where your passion for climate change comes from?
A (Solnit & Young Lutunatabua): The climate crisis is an all-hands-on-deck moment for humanity, when everyone needs to be looking around at how they can utilize their skills to ensure the best outcome for community. Rebecca and I both saw that throughout the climate movement (and the world), in regards to this pivotal moment, doom and gloom was dominating the narratives. While there are abundant reasons to feel fear and anger (etc.), we didn’t want people to stop at these emotions and instead remember that they have power to create change. We wanted people to remember that the future is not yet written, and we get to play a part in what happens.
We like to say that what we’re trying to offer is good facts and good frameworks, because so much of the despair, grief, and defeatism is rooted in not-so-good versions of the facts and frameworks. There are so many distortions of the scientific facts out there--that, for example, it’s too late, no one is doing anything, we don’t have the solutions, 1.5 degrees is a cliff we fall off. As for frameworks, a lot of widespread ideas about the nature of change and power don’t recognize the often slow and indirect paths of change or the way that those considered marginal and insignificant often incubate the ideas that will move to the center to change the world, that people who feel powerless alone can be part of powerful movements, because grassroots activism and movements have successfully changed the world before and can again.
Q: Going along with this project, your latest book is also titled Not Too Late. Has the process of creating this book changed your viewpoint on our climate in any way, good or bad?
A (Solnit & Young Lutunatabua): The process of creating the book solidified for me the importance of looking at this work beyond an individual lens. So many of our 20 contributors brought up the necessity of building community, taking action as a community, and nurturing your community. We have to get beyond the Western concept of scarcity and the hyper-focus on climate action as individual consumer practices. If you look at our capacity to create change as whole, there are a whole lot of reasons to fight and not give up.
It was also a joy to work with what we dubbed our dream team—some of the people we most admire in the climate movement and beyond, and to bring together their experience, insight, generosity, and valor. There was another round of delight when we announced the book last fall and the 20 contributors found out who else was in this book with them. I’d say we had some of our views confirmed, deepened, and expanded more than changed. But one emphasis that was relatively new, at least for me (Rebecca), is recognizing that the future we need to make to address the climate crisis can be abundant, beautiful, and joyful, that it’s not going to be all sacrifice and austerity. Too, you can look at all the ways that the present is itself full of sacrifice and austerity—of hope, health, clean air and water, equality, strong communities, etc.—in no small part because of the role of fossil fuels. They are literal and political poison.
